The discussion sponsored by the Sexual Assault Awareness Program and the Afro-American Society on Wednesday night provided a forum for constructive and introspective dialogue about the presence and effects of racism and sexism in rap lyrics.Participants bypassed the Don Imus controversy to critically evaluate the underlying issues and their potential solutions. The consensus reached at the end of the discussion demonstrates that even students with disparate views were able to find common ground on a contentious issue.
The high student turnout for New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's lecture last Tuesday showed that many students feel passionately about the genocide that is occurring in Darfur. Using photographs, videos and narratives from his own experience, Kristof truly brought the Dartmouth community face to face with the atrocities in Darfur, spurring emotional and passionate reactions. Hopefully, the strength of the response to Kristof's lecture will help to create a stable and lasting movement among the student body.
Both of these discussions exemplify the preferable method for dealing with incendiary social issues, especially on the Dartmouth campus. In the past, our campus has chosen to handle social controversy in less constructive ways, employing "us versus them" mentalities exemplified in the shouting contests and alarmist invectives characteristic of this past fall. The intellectual dialogue that occurred at this most recent discussion demonstrates that social tension has the potential to unite the Dartmouth community, rather than divide it.
What distinguished the discussions of rap music and the genocide in Darfur was students' ability to maintain a distance from these issues at the same time as trying to relate to them. This is in marked contrast to the larger climate of campus social debate, which tends to polarize and pit various groups against each other. What spurs knee-jerk reactions is the perceived need for some group to be on the defensive; keeping personal attacks out of campus debate is therefore the only way to both draw participants into a dialogue and produce effective solutions. Controversial issues on campus call for the same consideration, reflectiveness and deliberate tone of response that we give to problems that we may not come face to face with each day at Dartmouth.
